Roots-rock/reggae-inspired group, Baby Boy & the Earthly Delights have released their single, “Day by Day”.
It took a trip to Jamaica for Ryan Hook (aka Baby Boy) to truly understand the magic of reggae music. It was while Baby Boy and his dad watched a cover band expertly play all the Tuff Gong hits that define Jamaica to this day, that he had a musical epiphany.
For Baby Boy, a kid who was 12-years-old at the time and thought “Bob Marley was kind of lame,” this was huge.
The leader of the cover band, who went by “Mozzy,” turned out to be a friend of Baby Boy’s dad and he spent the night talking with them about the history of reggae and the inspiration behind the genre’s legendary downbeat.
Just picture it: Mozzy, a dreaded Rasta guru, giving advice to a frizzy-haired 12-year-old about reggae music being a combatant to civil oppression on a starry, tropical night.
“I remember him saying that the off-beat in reggae was like a ‘Fuck you to colonialism because it was different than the standard British, classical, way to write music. That was huge for me, a kid who spent his whole life studying classical music,” Baby Boy says.
Mozzy guided Baby Boy in his journey that night and still does to this day. He told the kid that when he was feeling down or confused, he should breathe, slow everything down, and repeat the mantra, “take it day by day my friend.”
Now, more than a decade later, Baby Boy has heeded Mozzy’s advice well, writing and reworking the newest single, “Day by Day,”—a song he’s had cooking for years—and creating a music video inspired by the wisdom of his long lost friend.
“Day by Day” starts with a palm-muted acoustic downbeat and Baby Boy’s warm voice leads the listener on a journey through the dualisms of contemporary life. Though the song wasn’t written with the pandemic in mind, the lyrics are eerily relatable to anyone who has had to reorganize their life this past year.
The accompanying music video is also quite inventive. Baby Boy sits frozen on a chair in his back yard “living room” while the world moves on, sometimes interacting with his still presence. A girl moves on with her day in sped-up time; vacuuming, doing yoga, reading a book, and adding accessories to Baby Boy’s zany wardrobe. He eventually snaps out of his frozen posture after each cycle, literally taking the world “day by day.”
The video was Baby Boy’s first venture into music videography and though it is a very low budget—due to the many constraints of the pandemic, the concept remains fresh and executed to fit the vibe and point of the song.
Check out the video below, and stay up to date with Baby Boy via his socials.
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